Harvest Moon
by SecretReality
Summary: Clary accompanies her best friend home to Ireland and hears an interesting local legend. *** I used the principle of bending from Avatar in the story, but non of the characters show up and there is no connection to the Avatar plotline, therefore I did not reference the story as a crossover. I hope that is alright :)


**Harvest Moon**

„ Hurry up", Liara said while quickly walking through the empty streets. She and Clary had travel via a portal to the industrial quarter which was the closest to the city centre. It was almost sunset and the last ray of sunlight was diving the dirty concrete walls into a soft golden, red and orange light, while the shadows of the factory tower was getting longer. Some places of the abandoned factory were already lying in darkness. In the sky a pale moon was rising. "We have to walk some time, I don't think there are any busses from around here", Liara said looking back to her best friend. The two girls started walking towards the city centre, while darkness fell over the town. The city centre was marked by the church tower sticking out over the more or less low-risen buildings of the town. The outer districts through which the girls were walking looked very modern, but at some points also dirty and shabby. After an hour the two arrived at the old city walls marking the entrance to the city centre. The roads changed from asphalt to cobblestone and a pavement did almost not exist any longer. "This is ancient", Clary said impressed and looked up and down the wall. "Of course it is", Liara answered amused, "This is Europe darling, everything around here is old, especially this town. I think it was built sometime in the middle-aged. The city centre is mostly a car free zone, because the streets in here are so small. Come on our house is standing directly next to the market square", she explained and walked through the gate into one of the many narrow streets. While following Liara through the maze of streets, Clary was fascinated by the little houses and stores which were build closely together and gave the impression, as if the house were stabilizing each other. Above the entrance of the ,now closed, stores there were a lot of beautiful made signs out of wood which were swinging in the soft and chilly wind, and between the houses shreds of mist were captured. After a while the finally arrived at the market square and Liara looked up and saw the almost full moon standing above the gable roofs surrounding the market. "I forgot", she mumbled, "the harvest moon." A little bit unsecure she looked around and then she started to cross the empty market in a hurry. "Stay away from the well", she called out to her friend and pointed at dark facet of an old well in the middle of the market. "Why? ", Clary asked a little bit confused and followed her. "Not now", she answered and stopped in front of one of the old houses. Through the widows you could glimpse at a glimmer of light. The house didn't have a door bell, only one of these very old knockers. Liara knocked and quickly afterwards a male voice asked: "Who is there?" "It's me", Liara answered and the door opened very quickly. "Liara? What are you doing out her at this time of the year?" a young man asked and pulled her in in a hurry. Clary followed her and the young man rapidly closed the door behind them and even looked the door chain. Then he put aside the gun ha had been secretly holding. Liara looked at him doubtfully, "Really Conner? Was this thing really necessary?" Conner didn't answer her and looked at her partly angry, partly happy and partly worried. "Where have you been? ", he asked. "This is kind of a long story", she answered and took of her jacket. Clary followed her example. Another young man showed up in the door of one of the rooms. He held his arms crossed and looked at Liara with an inscrutable face. "Look who decided to finally come home again?" he snapped, "after more or less disappearing into thin air, talking about some crazy mission she needed to accomplish." "It was really important, okay Keith?" Liara defeated herself, "is dad her?" "Were else should he be?" Keith asked still angry and stepped aside to let them into the living room. There was a fire burning in the fireplace and a man with greyish hair was sitting at the table. He looked up when they entered and then he got up hasty, crossed the room with long steps and pulled Liara into a bone crushing hug. Afterwards he held her at arm's length and said relieved "Your back home my child, finally." "We have been looking for you everywhere", Conner said reproachful. Liara sighed "I am sorry okay, it was kind of an emergency and I needed to go and take care of things." "Without telling anybody of course", Keith commented and sat down next to a third man looking slightly younger than the others. He was sitting next to an even younger looking boy with whom he was playing cards, as Clary suddenly noticed. "I said I am sorry, okay? ", Liara repeated and stepped aside, crossing her arms to block them. "Your brothers, are right Liara", her father said strictly, "You cannot just go away without leaving a message that is not how we do this in this family! And step away from the window!" His voice had risen over his sentence. Liara looked behind herself and stepped aside and rolled her eyes. "Don't roll your eyes on me like that!" her father instructed her, "It is harvest moon time, you know what this means!" "Yeah, alright", she tried to calm him down and stepped aside. "Do you remember Clary, my best friend when we were living in New York?" Liara asked and pulled Clary in the foreground. "Of course I remember her, but I barley recognised her ", her father answered more friendly, he gave Clary his hand "My, you have grown into a beautiful young women", he said friendly. " Nice to see you again Mr O'Quinn", Clary answered smiling. "You probably don't remember Liara's brothers do you? I mean Liara and you; you almost never came to our place, back then. You were always playing outside", he went on talking. Clary had to admit to herself, that she had always known about Liara's four brothers, but they always had been some blurry faces, because the youngest of them was five years older than her. All of them were greeting her friendly until the youngest noticed the rune marks at her arm. "Really Liara?" he asked derogatory, "Now you interact with Shadowhunters?" Clary suddenly felt bad about the rune marks she was caring. "You know what they did to our people!" "Just ignore him Clary", she suggested, "My brother apparently didn't learn how to be polite." Then she snapped: "You know, actually I do, and I don't like most of them, but some of them are actually very nice persons, Emmett. So how about trying to treat them politely?" Emmett shocks his head and went back to the game of cards he was playing with his brother. "So what were the two of you doing outside, at this time?" Keith asked challenging "And for god's sake step away from the window!" Liara stepped aside again and answered; "Well, we needed some time to get here and kind of left late, you know?" Keith got up and closed the curtains of the window next to his sister. Liara rolled her eyes again. "I am kind of hungry", she then said, "You too, Clary?" Clary nodded. "I guess you already ate?" she asked while turning towards her family. They nodded quietly. Clary had the feeling that they were very angry with her best friend, and she wondered how Liara would explain them, that she had to leave because she had to attend a very important battel that decided over the fate of the whole Shadowhunter world, while her family obviously didn't like Shadowhunters at all. "Well then", Liara said into the silence "let's go." And then she left for the kitchen with Clary in tow.

The kitchen was looking very cosy and Liara went straight to the fridge. Clary sat down at one of the wooden chairs standing around. "Does it just seem like it or are they very, very angry with you? ", she mentioned. Liara signed. "Yes they are, but the will get over it. It just because I am the youngest child and a girl and the first female bender in this family for ages, and well they are kind of old fashioned in some ways", she explained while taking out some veggies and putting them on a cutting board. "But you are a grown up, you can decide what you want to do on your own", Clary remarked unbelievingly. "Well, yes. But they are a little bit over protective sometimes", Liara admitted. "And what is going on with the windows and the well?" Clary asked inquisitive. "Ouch, that's just one of this old tales they tell around here", she answered and started to cut the veggies to put them into a cauldron, "It's a tale about the well in the middle of the market. It's called the midnight well. People around here are a little bit superstitious. They say the well is dark and evil and because of that they stay away from it. I grew up with this, and you know some behaviour run deeper than you think, that's why I mentioned it earlier when we were crossing the market square. Legend says that there was once a lovely young maid, the fairest that thy ever saw, a true beauty you know. But she was a little bit stubborn and rather went her own way than listen to her family and friends. One night she went out and sat next to the well on her own. It is told that she had a rendezvous with a gypsy man she barely knew. No one in the town could tell where he came from, but they remembered the fire in his eyes, his earrings of gold and his hair back as coal and a look that could just hypnotize when he talked. They say he seduced her by asking her to come with him, to lay with him and finally to step out of the light to ride with him into the night. Well, the maid was never seen again, she disappeared and left absolutely no trace behind. And since then they say that when the summer nights come to an end and the harvest moon glows in the sky, a black horse appear at the well with the ghost of the gypsy flying by still seducing young women to go away with him. And well over the past centuries it sometimes happened that a young and unmarried girl disappeared in the night of the harvest moon, because she was careless enough to be outside on her own. That scares people and they say that these girls were seduced and kidnaped by the ghost of the gypsy. That's why the keep girls inside during the nights of the harvest moon and they want us to stay away from the windows, because otherwise it is possible that the gypsy sees you, and then you are the next one to disappear. No father or brother wants his daughter or sister to be next, so that's why they are acting that way", Liara explained. " You have to admit, there are some parallel between you and the maid from the story", one of the younger men, who was playing card before, noticed from the door, " stubborn, careless and not listening, fits to you pretty well don't you think little sis?" "Maybe you are right Finn, but first of all this is a ghost story and second I bet that the maid from the story wasn't a bender, like me. So I am probably able to defend myself a lot better than here, right?" Liara replied and stirred in the cauldron" Maybe", Finn agreed", but we don't need to challenge him, do we?" Then he swiftly closed the curtains of the kitchen windows. "Finn, the harvest moon isn't jet at full size, you are overreacting", she tried to make herself clear, "what are you even doing in the kitchen? As far as I know the whiskey is standing in the cupboard of the living room." " Well Finn and I were wondering, if there was some stew for us too", Emmett, who had suddenly appeared in the kitchen as well, explained. Liara laughed "I thought you lot had already eaten", she claimed. "That's totally right", Finn admitted, "but you know you stew is very good, so…" "Aright", she replied, "do Dad and the others want something as well?" "I guess so", Emmett answered. "Okay, fine than I will make some beer bread too", Liara said amused. "Yes!" they cheered and left the kitchen. Liara shook her head laughing and continued cooking. Clary stood up and asked: "Can I help you somehow?" "Sure", Liara replied, "you can help me with the dough." While mixing the ingredients for the bread, which to Cary's surprise included some beer, she noticed: "I didn't know you could cook that well Liara" "Oh well, "Liara replied, "you know I was raised by a single dad and to my surprise all of my friends mothers were cooking most of the time, so I decided that the lack of a mother caused my dad to cook and because it looked fun I learned it. I actually like it most of the time." While waiting for the bread and the stew to finish Clary asked:" Earlier in the living room, Emmett was it? He said something about what Shadowhunters did to 'our people', does this mean he is like you, a bender?" Liara tilted with her chair and answered: "Yes he is and so is Keith. But my father, Conner and Finn don't have any bending power." "And which element do they control?" Clary asked curiously. "Fire, they control fire which was my first element, too. And I think there wasn't any female bender in my family for like ever, so you can see what kind of challenge it is for them, and where their sometimes very traditional gender rules come from. Because hey they aren't used to having a female worrier in the family and then I am kind of this super bender, so it is hard for them sometimes", Liara explained.

Clary found the dinner amazing, even though the conversation about where Liara had been the last few days wasn't real fun, it reminded her of what she didn't really have but dreamed of for some time. After dinner the group sat together and played some very complicated card game Clary didn't really understand, but which was a lot of fun. Liara's father lightened his pipe and in the end he decided "Let's have a little Saisiún because Liara decided to come home after all." "I already told you a thousand times, I am sorry I didn't say anything dad", Liara defended herself again. "And I can't here it often enough", her father answered and kissed her on the forehead. Clary had no idea what this Saisiún was supposed to be so she was surprised when Finn took out his fiddle and Conner took out his guitar. "A Saisiún is some kind of spontaneous music session", Liara explained her, and "it is kind of typically Irish." The guys played amazingly good and so the evening ended with songs like 'Whiskey in the Jar' and 'Wild Rover'. It took Clary some time until she could join in more than the chorus, but she enjoyed the sound of this many male and different voices together with Liara's clear soprano voice.

At around midnight, the music stopped and Liara's father send them all to bed and Clary realised that they hadn't taken care of a place for her to sleep. Liara took her arm and led her upstairs. "I have a sleeping couch in my room", she said and showed Clary her room. It was small but very cosy. Before he went to bed Keith came to their room and checked if the shutters where really closed. For a moment it looked like Liara wanted to protest against it again, but she changed her mind. "Good night, little sister, good night Clary", Keith said and left closing the door behind him. Liara smirked a little bit and said "He is happy we're here, but he is too proud to admit it." She sat down on her bed face to face with Clary's couch. Clary sad too and asked:" The story you told me earlier, about the maid and the gypsy, do you believe it?" Liara shrug her shoulders "I don't know. We can put a video camera on the roof top tomorrow night, to check, if you want. You know what they say 'all legends are true'. "

And outside the pale moon continued his journey across the sky and did the wind sing the gypsy's song? "Come away, come away with me come here and lay with me come away out of the light, come and ride with me into the night."


End file.
